Ports, carriers slowly rebound from Hurricane Ike

The Port of Houston said it is not open to receive trucks for drop-offs or deliveries on Tuesday, due to recovery efforts and loss of electricity in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

The port is still in an asset-recovery mode, but the port authority said that based on preliminary assessments its facilities have limited negative impact from Hurricane Ike.

As with most of the Houston area, the port is without power.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said portions of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Houston Channel have been reopened to shallow-draft commercial vessels.

The Houston Channel is open to outbound commercial vessels with a draft of 12 feet or less, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is open from the Houston and Galveston area, west toward Corpus Christi. All vessels are required to exercise the slowest safe speed to minimize wake.

All other waterway restrictions in the Houston-Galveston area remain in place until ongoing post-hurricane assessments for aids to navigation, pollution and navigational hazards are completed.

Heavy-lift and project cargo carrier Intermarine said its Industrial Terminals was affected by the storm surge. As a result, many cargoes for Intermarine services were affected by water. At this time, Industrial Terminals is in the process of organizing the yard such that cargo inspections may take place.

We realize the need for Intermarine's clients to inspect cargo and the desire to do this as soon as possible, the company said.

Cargo surveys will be done on an appointment basis only, beginning on Wednesday, and the company asked shippers to begin scheduling these appointments after 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The Port of Beaumont in Texas said Monday that Hurricane Ike caused no apparent damage to cargo and only minor damage to facilities.

The port is awaiting restoration of essential services, but administrative and operations facilities are staffed and operating on generator power.

The Sabine-Neches Waterway remains closed to shipping traffic while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveys the channel for any obstructions or loss of navigation aids.

Liquid products barge company Kirby Corp. said none of its personnel were injured and no boats or barges suffered any material damage due to Hurricane Ike.

Joe Pyne, Kirby's president and chief executive officer, said, Houston is our most significant operating area and is also home to almost 50 percent of the U.S. Petrochemical facilities. We had 303 barges and 83 tow boats in Houston when Hurricane Ike passed through the area. We are pleased to report that no Kirby personnel were injured and our entire barge and boat fleet was intact with no material damage following the passage of the hurricane.

Our operations and our customers' operations will obviously be negatively impacted by delays in reopening the waterways and by damage to plant facilities. We did incur some damage to our headquarters building in Houston but we have been able to work around this issue without disrupting operations. Many plants and waterways were affected by the storm and it's too early to access the impact on Kirby or when operations will be back to normal, Pyne said. 

Source: American Shipper